A poesia de Maria Lúcia Alvim em Batendo pasto: reflexões e análises

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the work Batendo pasto by Maria Lúcia Alvim, a poet from Araxá born in 1932, whose literary career unfolded between urban and rural settings and remained, for a long period, on the margins of the literary canon. Although she released several books throughout her life, her work gained greater visibility only after 2020, when Batendo pasto, originally written in 1982, was published and subsequently won the Jabuti Award for Poetry. The primary objective of this study is to analyze Maria Lúcia Alvim’s poetry in Batendo pasto, reflecting on the constitution of the lyrical subject, intertextual relationships, representations of nature, and manifestations of eroticism in her poetic writing. This study is justified by the need to deepen research into Maria Lúcia Alvim’s poetics, thereby contributing to the expansion of critical scholarship on Batendo pasto and to broader discussions regarding contemporary Brazilian poetry. The research employs a methodology based on bibliographic analysis and a critical, systematic reading of the work, linking the literary text to an interdisciplinary theoretical framework. Key theoretical references include Michel Collot’s "The Lyrical Subject Outside Itself”, which aids in understanding the externalization of poetic subjectivity; Tiphaine Samoyault’s A intertextualidade, which assists in analyzing the dialogues established between the work and other texts; Evandro Nascimento’s O pensamento vegetal: a literatura e suas plantas, which grounds the reflection on the relationship between nature and thought; and Georges Bataille’s Erotism: Death and Sensuality, used to analyze how eroticism is crafted within the poems. The results indicate that the work is constructed around a tension between interiority and exteriority, wherein nature serves not merely as a backdrop but as a constitutive element of the subjective experience. It is evident that Maria Lúcia Alvim’s writing, by prioritizing the rural world, the intimate, and the sensory, diverges from the dominant trends of her time, thereby constituting a form of aesthetic resistance. Furthermore, eroticism emerges as a feminine poetic force arising from the interplay between body, nature, and language; meanwhile, intertextuality manifests through a dialogue with diverse literary and cultural traditions, serving as an essential element in constructing her poetics and expanding the meanings within Alvim’s rural universe. Ultimately, her poetry contributes to a broader understanding of the contemporary by offering a unique perspective that bridges tradition and rupture, and by highlighting the power of marginalized voices in the process of re-evaluating the literary canon.